Oakland North’s biggest news stories of 2012

2012 was a year of big changes for Oakland, as the city dealt with its struggling finances, a possible federal takeover of its police department, multiple petitions to recall the mayor and the closure of several elementary schools. Occupy Oakland-related events and protests — including the peaceful Occupy Lakeview school encampment and two unrelated confrontational face-offs with police in downtown Oakland — continued throughout the first half of the year, while during the latter half much of the city’s political energy was focused on a hard-fought election season, which ultimately brought new faces to the city council and school board and resulted in the ouster of several long-serving city politicians.

Sometimes Oakland’s headline news shocked the nation; in April, a gunman killed seven and wounded several others on the campus of Oakland’s Oikos University, one of the largest mass shootings in US history. On the same day, several federal agencies raided Oaksterdam University, setting off a long chain of events that has led to confusion over the future of the city’s much-touted medical marijuana industry.

But there was good news, too; it was a banner year for new businesses, clubs, festivals and arts ventures in the city as Oakland’s reputation as a culturally diverse, artistically hip and economically burgeoning town continued to grow, and the city rolled out major development plans designed to keep Oakland’s professional sports teams in town. Meanwhile, renovations and new construction, both public and private, began to move ahead. In a sharp turnaround from the post dot-com-bomb years, when the city had difficulty wooing big retailers, many of Oakland’s development battles focused on neighborhoods eager to turn away or restrict the size of major chains in the hope of giving more breathing room to locally-owned businesses.